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Acetal Copolymer

Acetal Copolymer

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Acetal Materials

Acetal Copolymer / Dupont Delrin® 150SA Homopolymer

Which Acetal material should you use? (POM)

  • Both Acetal Copolymer and Delrin® 150SA Homopolymer are FDA Compliant
  • Both are very stiff and have excellent dimensional stability
  • Are Self Lubricating, Abrasion Resistance, and Excellent Wear properties
  • Available in Natural, Black and Blue. Custom colors also available.
  • Cuts extremely well with standard cutting tools
  • Delrin® AF (PTFE Filled), Glass Filled, and Specialty Grades Available
  • Delrin® 150SA Homopolymer have similar properties and frequently replace: Noryl®Nylon®, and PET or PBT materials
  • Acetal and Delrin® are High Tech Performance Plastics

Some reasons to choose Homopolymer vs. Copolymer

Both Acetal (POM) grades have very similar properties. Our clients seem to prefer the Dupont brand name Homopolymer materials because of the superior physical properties. The issues that lead clients to the Copolymer is a slightly lower cost, and the minor inherent center-line porosity in the Delrin® 150SA Homopolymer grade.

Dupont™ Delrin ® is a popular acetal homopolymer brand name and the most commonly used acetal homopolymer.

The Delrin® 150SA is a brand name of Dupont, and it is often referred to as POM-H or Acetal Homopolymer. Common brand or trade names for extruded Acetal sheet and rod materials include: Tecaform® AH, SUSTARIN® C, ZL® 900-C, Pomalux®, Unital®, Mechatec Acetal®, Acetron® and many more. This excellent mechanical plastic material is also referred to as: Acetal Copolymer rod, Copolymer Acetal rod, Copolymer Plastic Rod, Acetal Copolymer vs Acetal Homopolymer, Homopolymer Acetal rod, Acetal Homopolymer rod, and many others.

Specializing in Wholesale Acetal and Delrin Engineering Plastics, Mechanical Plastics and High Performance Plastics

**Note:  Delrin® is a registered Trademark of Dupont

**See also: Alignable Acetal – Delrin Page

 

10-inch-Black-Acetal-Rod

Why you should use Acetal/ Delrin®

  • Both the Dupont Delrin® and Acetal Copolymer are FDA Compliant
  • They are very stiff and have excellent dimensional stability
  • Are self-lubricating, abrasion-resistant, and have excellent wear properties
  • Cuts extremely well with standard cutting tools
  • Delrin® AF (PTFE Filled), Glass Filled and Specialty Grades Available
  • Delrin® Rod and Plate have similar properties and frequently replace: Noryl®Nylon and PET materials

Some reasons to choose Homopolymer vs. Copolymer

Both POM grades have very similar properties. Our clients seem to prefer the Acetal over the Homopolymer materials due to the inherent center-line porosity in the Delrin® Homo-polymer version. This means, that along the center of a rod, or the middle of a sheet, there is a band of area with tiny porous holes. This can weaken or cause problems with a finished part, and in extreme cases, you may see blow by or leakage at this center line. While Delrin® is a brand name, it is a POM Homo-polymer.

The most requested and popular item we supply is the Acetal; the POM Copolymer resin made by one of the other big resin manufacturers – like BASF or Celanese/Tacona.

Both Delrin and Acetal are ITAR compliant, and Delrin and Acetal are RoHS compliant.

The most requested and popular item we supply is the Acetal; the POM Co-polymer resin made by one of the other big resin manufacturers – like BASF or Celanese/Tacona.

Both of these premium performance plastic resins are readily available. If you would prefer the Delrin® brand Sheet or Rod, drop us a line, send us an email – we will be happy to ship the requested material for you. We don’t make judgments on the suitability of material for your application, we just supply what you, our clients ask for. Please, just let us know ahead of time if you have a preference. There are a few other names we hear when people are looking for Delrin®, like Delron, Delran, Delrun, Delren, and many more. Just let us know, and we will be happy to supply a high quality Delrin® brand or Copolymer Acetal product.

Want more information on the differences?  Acetal Compared With Delrin®  and Use The Best Wholesale Acetal Rod and Delrin® Rod Supplier. Natural Acetal Copolymer Rod Now Available up to 24″ in Diameter

Still not sure Delrin® or Acetal is the proper material for your application, consult our free Plastic Materials Selection Guide.

Industrial Plastic Supply proudly stocks Acetal and Dupont Delrin 150SA from these premium manufacturers:

Ensinger® Plastics for Dupont Delrin 150SA and Tecaform AH Copolymer Acetal

Rochling® Plastics for Dupont Delrin 150SA and Sustarin C Copolymer Acetal

Z/L Plastics® for Dupont Delrin 150SA and ZL® 900 series Copolymer Acetal

And many more ‘American Made’ quality plastic manufacturers.

Both Delrin and Acetal are ITAR compliant, and Delrin and Acetal are RoHS compliant.

Acetal materials are excellent machining materials – a favorite of machinists. Works like a soft brass, and has exceptional dimensional stability. It comes as a stress relieved material, however if you plan to do extensive machining, you may need to stress relieve the parts prior to final pass. Rods are machined well in lathe and mill, sheets are machined or cut in most common machine tools.

  • Excellent Machining
  • Low co-efficient of Friction
  • Very low moisture resistance

The work horse of the mechanical plastics family, it is one of the most popular grades of material we supply. Other brand or trade names: Pomalux®, Acetron®, Ensital®, Unital®, Tecaform®, Ultraform®, Celcon®, BASF®, Hostaform®, Ticona®, and Dupont Delrin®. Occasionally we are asked for the difference between Acetal and HDPE – here is an explanationApplications – Frequently used in:

  • Wear and Slide machined parts from Rod and Plate
  • FDA, NSF, 3-A, and USDA Compliant Machined Parts
  • Easily machined parts for water / moisture environments
  • Critical tolerance and dimensionally stable parts
  • 185 degrees F Continuous Temperature Environments
  • Rod and Rods, Sheet and Sheets for numerous applications

Acetal Sheet and Rod Specifications:

In stock we normally carry one of these resins: BASF Ultraform® H4320, Kepital® F10-02, or Hostaform® M25. Current Certifications and Specifications used for Acetal – Delrin®: FDA, USDA, NSF, ASTM D6778 Superseded or out dated Specifications for Acetal – Delrin®: L-P-392, ASTM D4181

Materials Available As

Delrin® Sheet – Delrin®Plate or Acetal Sheet – Acetal Plate: .062″ – 6.0″ up to 48″ X 120″ in Natural (White) and Black.

Acetal sheet and Acetal Plate thickness normally in stock: .125″, .187″, .250″, .312″, .375″, .500″, .625″, .750″, .875″, 1.0″, 1.250″, 1.500″, 1.750″, 2.0″, 2.250″, 2.500″, 2.750″, 3.0″, 3.250″, 3.50″, 3.750″, 4.0″, 4.50″, 5.0″ and larger

Delrin® AF Sheet and Plate: .062″ – 3.0″ thick in 24″ X 48″, brown in color

Delrin® AF Rod: .250″ – 10″ diameter rod in up to 120″ lengths, brown in color

Film: .005″ – .062″ up to 24″ wide in Natural (White) and Black (minimums may apply)

Acetal Rod and Rods: .125″ – 10″ diameter in Natural (White) and Black up to 120″ lengths For Colored Acetal – Delrin Rod® Read Here.

Acetal Rod diameters normally in stock: .125″, .187″, .250″, .312″, .375″, .437″, .500″, .562″, .625″, .750″, .875″, 1.0″, 1.125″, 1.250″, 1.375″, 1.500″, 1.625″, 1.750″, 2.0″, 2.250″, 2.500″, 2.750″, 3.0″, 3.250″, 3.50″, 3.750″, 4.0″, 4.50″, 5.0″ and many more – up to 20.0″ diameter rod is available!

Special Formulations: Conductive, Static Dissipative, PTFE-TFE Filled, Glass Reinforced, Custom Sizes, Formulations, or Colors Occasionally we are asked for the difference between Acetal and HDPE – here is an explanation.

Typical Resin Properties:

General PropertyASTM TestTypical Value Unfilled Delrin® Homo-PolymerTypical Value Unfilled Co-PolymerTypical Value Delrin® AF
Specific GravityD7921.421.401.50
Tensile Strength YieldD6389,600 – 11,0009,000 – 10,2007,600
Tensile ModulusD638450,000400,000400,000
Izod Impact – NotchedD2561.21.00.9
Hardness – RockwellD785M94M90M89
Deflection Temp @ 264psiD648257220260
Deflection Temp @ 66 psiD648347335347
Water Absorption @ 24 hrs%0.240.250.20
Co. Thermal ExpansionD6966.83X10-55.4X10-55.0X10-5
Acetal Copolymer Sheet and Rod

Properties are for evaluation purposes only. This information is not to be construed as a warranty, guarantee or assurance that you may achieve the same results. Materials made from different resin types, manufacturing techniques and manufacturers will react differently. The information should be used to compare against other materials only, and each user should make his own tests to determine suitability. No warranty as to this materials suitability are either expressed nor implied.

Are Your Plastic Material Suppliers Stressing You Out

Are Your Plastic Material Suppliers Stressing You Out

Stress In Plastic Sheet, Rod, Tube Stress can cause product failure and cracking

You know how bad it is when you get stressed out, with all the day to day challenges and issues? Well, plastics get stressed too.

The process of producing plastics into sheet, rod and tube is a stressful manufacturing process.

Stress free plastic manufacturing

  • The process to make a plastic sheet, plastic rod or plastic tube requires the plastic resin to be heated to temperatures of 350° – 500º to get the resin to flow through the machines.
  • The material is then pushed through a die at high pressure.
  • This heat and pressure cause many stresses to affect the plastic material.
  • The cooling of the plastic shape is critical
  • If the plastic cools to quickly, the surface cools and the center is still very hot, this is a major cause of internal stress.
  • Processed to quickly and voids or cold spots cause poor quality sections.
  • Processed to slowly and materials burn in the die and visible burn spots appear on the surfaces – bad material
  • Proper speed provides homogeneous material that has cooled at a uniform rate through the sheet yields a very low stress sheet

The stresses from this production can be very significant and can ruin your parts. One common prevention method is to anneal or stress relieve the raw material prior to machining, and may require stress relieving during machining if large amounts of material are being removed. The stress relieving process is a slow heat and cool process, contact us for details on your material or project.

Here is an example of a highly stressed plastic sheet, it is 1.250″ thick glass filled nylon sheet. The manufacturer sent us this sample to show the ‘quality’ of their material. We attempted to cut off a strip to do some testing, and you can see the results. This material warped so much it stopped our saw! We never did buy anything from this supplier.

Compression Molded Plastic Sheet and Brownies…

Nylon with huge amount of stress, cooled too quickly causing severe warp during cutting. This makes for an unsafe and danger to the machinist.

Nylon with huge amount of stress, cooled too quickly.

Yes, you read that right, brownies. I still remember the wonderful smell of my Grandma’s house when she was baking her special 2″ thick brownies. The smell was great, but I also remember the critical timing in the oven. She would open the oven and peek in, and close it quickly so as not to let the heat out. Then, when they looked about right she would open the oven and slip a toothpick into the center of the pan and pull it out again slowly. I can remember asking, “Grandma, why do you put in the toothpick into the brownie?”. The answer was, that the outside cooks quicker than the inside, and it takes a while to get the brownies to cook all the way to the center.Then, when they were all cooked, I would have to wait while they cooled. And, sometimes, if I didn’t wait quite long enough, when I would take a bit the center would burn my tongue. Ouch!

The interesting thing is, that plastics are about the same. Most plastics have a very low co-efficient of thermal conductivity (that is sure a mouth-full), which means that heat and cold don’t travel through the plastics well. This means that it takes a while to ‘cook’ the plastic all the way through, and not just the surfaces. And, just like my brownie story, the plastics take a long time to cool. If the outside of the plastic cools much faster than the inside, then large amounts of stress develop.

The process of compression molding of the plastic sheets is ideal for eliminating stress. The sheets cook slowly, so the entire sheet, including the center, is heated to a uniform temperature. The temperature is held at temperature to insure a fully cooked sheet (you can’t use a toothpick here). Then, over several hours, the temperature of the sheet and the entire compression molding press is lowered very s-l-o-w-l-y. This allows the center of the sheet to cool at the same rate as the external surfaces, and this yields a very stress free sheet. The premier manufacturer of this high quality compression molded sheet is Westlake Plastics. We have been a master supplier of the Westlake Plastic materials for over 35 years.

What should you do to eliminate stress?

If you are experiencing problems with your plastic materials, such as twisting, warping, ‘potato chipping’ or any other sign of stress, contact us. It is probably not your fault. There are dozens of manufacturers that produce engineering and mechanical plastic shapes, they are not all the same. During the production of materials, the process should include a secondary annealing step to remove stress from the newly product.  By removing all stress from the sheet or rod you are insured of a ‘clean slat’ before you start machining or finishing. We only provide materials from top rated manufacturers, we truly care about the materials you receive from us.

If you have been experiencing problems with the materials you are getting from other suppliers, let us know, we can help eliminate your stress problems. E-mail us or call us at: 866-832-9315